From the course: Managing Organizational Change for Managers

Sustaining your team's hope during change

From the course: Managing Organizational Change for Managers

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Sustaining your team's hope during change

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- Hope might not be the first word that comes to mind when you think about leading change, but I'd argue it's one of the most essential. In my book, "To Be Honest", I wrote, "Hope is created at the intersection of passion, a desire for something greater. Perseverance, the need to prevail against great odds. And faith, the belief that there is something greater beyond those odds." Hope is what keeps people going when results are slow. It's what fuels belief that this time the change will be different. In fact, it's so important that recent Gallup research suggests "Hope is what people most want from their leaders." That means without it even the best strategies will fall flat. Hope doesn't disappear overnight. It fades in quiet, cumulative ways. When people see change start strong, then stall. When leaders over promise and under deliver. When past change efforts were abandoned halfway through. When the tough times show up and nobody acknowledges them. And when hope fades, so does effort. People check out. Not visibly, but emotionally. They stop raising ideas, stopped giving their best. They stop believing. In my book I wrote about Melanie, a frontline logistics leader who was trying to modernize her facility while protecting the jobs of her teammates. Her leaders were focused on efficiency. Melanie was focused on purpose. And when hope started to fade, she acted. She told the truth, she advocated for others, and in doing so, she helped restore hope for herself and her team. As leaders, you don't have to be perfect, but you do have to be intentional. Here are three ways to sustain hope during change. First, speak honestly about the hard stuff. Hope isn't blind optimism. It's the belief that something better is possible even when it's hard. When you name the difficulty, people trust your belief in the outcome even more. You might say, "This part's going to be tough, but we're going to get through it together." Second, keep connecting the dots. Progress is often slow and non-linear. Keep showing people how their efforts are moving things forward even just by inches. You could say, "This team's adaptability last week helped us hit a critical milestone." That's what this change needs. People willing to flex and still move forward. And third, protect people's sense of purpose. Hope thrives when people believe their work matters. Remind them what this change is for and make sure your decisions match what you promised. You might say, "We said we were doing this to create more space for meaningful work, and that's still the goal. Let's hold ourselves to it." Hope is not soft, it's fuel. And when change gets tough, and it will, it's hope that keeps your team going. So check in, name the purpose of the change, acknowledge the hard parts, celebrate progress, and most of all, believe in the better future you're asking others to reach for. Because if you give up hope, trust me, they will too. But if you keep it alive, they'll stick with it.

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